Water
by Raven2120
Summary: Oneshots dealing with NejiTenten romance or friendship, with water as the common theme. Theme and prompts borrowed from the LJ, 30kisses community. I didn't join or claim the couple, just using the comm. as inspiration. First prompt, 'the deep end'.
1. The Deep End

Author's Note: I was originally trying to write something else, and this was spawned. It is my first attempt at anything Neji/Tenten. It was inspired from a 30kisses prompt. But, I didn't sign up for the Neji/Tenten pairing; I figure there are other authors with more talent that deserve to claim this couple. The requirements for the story: a kiss and something that was relevant to 'the deep end' (which fell under the water motif). Mine is a saying, not literally the deep end of a pool. I have been reading a ton of Neji/Tenten fan fiction lately, and I hope my characterizations aren't completely horrid. Any parallels with another story you find, I was definitely not aware of and did not intend.

I was partially inspired by the new Shippuuden episodes, where Tenten is exasperated with Gai and Lee's overreacting and childish behavior, and Neji tells her to "drop it" or "just let it go". You'll see the part. I would appreciate constructive criticism, reviews are nice but they are not expected.

If anyone would like to Beta this for me, it would be appreciated greatly; I can't catch all the mistakes and relying on word is just begging for trouble.

Thanks!

Also, I don't own Naruto.

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Off the deep end.

It was the only plausible explanation for his abnormal behavior. What other answer could there possibly be for the shaking of his hands, and the quaking of his knees. Treacherous appendages! He violently shoved his hands into his pockets. He was never nervous! His name was Neji, and Neji was always calm, cool, and collected. Walking his teammate home had never been a problem before. Perhaps it was because Neji planned on altering this routine, in his benefit (he hoped). His hormones were severely annoying; you'd think he was 14 instead of 19. If his fellow jounin ever found out they would be calling him nervous-Neji. He narrowed his eyes burning the well trodden path with his glare. This was frustrating it wasn't anything out of routine for the rather tall man. He always walked Tenten home; it was a ritual that neither of them questioned. She'd pick up her discarded weapons; he'd silently walk her home. She'd smile and thank him, and if training went particularly well, he'd return her smile. What changed?! His white eyes narrowed minutely, what was this ridiculous reaction about?! He'd never experienced this before, and he…

Stopped dead in his tracks.

Tenten has paused and was looking at him with a confused expression.

A few nano-seconds that lacked basic intelligence, gifted to all humans, descended upon, the normally intellectually gifted, Hyuuga. An undetectable moment of a caveman-like reaction came and passed; it went by unnoticed; and wouldn't be repeated, according to his adamant refusal against the prospect of acting like a drooling primate. Even if Tenten HAD developed some sort of mind control technique, and was ordering all his attention to focus on her at the moment.

Off the deep end, indeed. It seemed he was being stopped in his tracks, quite literally, by her more often. These occurrences were a response to simple actions that hadn't affected him before. The way she gracefully picked her self up after being knocked down, or as she unleashed her deadly arsenal during battle, unfurling as she stretched her sore muscles. In this instance, it was the way the setting sun's rays stretched across her face. Her skin glowed and the sun's light colored her eyes.

"Neji?" her head tilted to the side observing him, "are you okay? You're acting… weird". He found himself in an odd position; he was unable to look away from her mouth. She toyed with the hem of her shirt, a nervous habit that she had developed recently. It was most likely a direct response to him, continuously, stepping further back on the human's evolutionary family tree. His intellectual level, at the moment, was somewhere between _homo erectus_ and Neanderthal.

Neji swallowed thickly, tasting the crisp fall air. His face was hot, and he was sure she must have felt the waves of heat pouring off. Stupid hormones… he was better than this.

She waved a hand in front of his face, effectively breaking him out of the trance he was in.

'Damn it'

She giggled lightly, hand covering her mouth.

"I didn't knock you to the ground too hard today, did I Neji?" she teased lightly, "You seem a little spacey".

He started to choke but immediately recovered, huffily crossing his arms and looking up and away from her.

He grunted defensively instead,

"Che. You're crazy". He tensed up and started walking away.

Her brown eyes twinkled with silent laughter and mirth as she jogged to catch up. He slowed down slightly to let her draw even with him, shortening his strides to accommodate her smaller ones.

They walked in comfortable silence through town, their ninja shoes whispering along the dirt road. A cool breeze lifted and played with stray pieces of their hair, tossing them into their faces. The two leaf Nins turned down the dusty side road towards Tenten's apartment. In hindsight, his maddening descent off the deep end wasn't immediate, or fast, it was a slow tumble, that had built up momentum. It gathered up more of his logic, and emotion, mixing it all together on the ride down, so when it stopped, and he appeared to have reached level ground, he was so dizzy and disoriented in the unfamiliar territory, that when he looked back he couldn't see, even with the byakugan, where the tumble had originally started. In the end all he was left with was a firm decision, and a fluttering stomach. He was so immersed in his ponderings when he looked up he was surprised to see the worn door of Tenten's apartment. The exasperating butterflies rushed in and completely beat down the slight surprise. The pounding of his heart was thunderous. She had to be able to hear it. She just gave him a radiant smile, that stopped the racing in his mind, and she pulled out her keys and they jingled as she turned to unlocked her door. Pulling open the relatively light door, she dropped her heavy pack inside by the lamp stand.

The noise brought his awareness back. She was looking at him again; her body rotated and she was facing him. Her eyebrow lifted cutely, and a playful smile spread across her face, her eyes glinted inquisitively.

"Neji?" she cooed with an undertone of deceptive harmlessness. Neji wasn't fooled, he could at least boast that much. Her playful act halted at the intense gaze he leveled at her. Her heart fluttered wildly as she was drawn into his gaze. She had chunks of chestnut hair, falling loose from her buns thanks to the earlier training session.

Drawing upon the innate Hyuuga-courage he shifted closer to her, and cut the distance separating them in half. The air around them heated, and she could feel his body-heat being emitted in waves. Her smile faltered as she took a step back, the door shutting sounded more like a sonic boom, than the soft thud it was in reality. But reality seemed so far away in that moment. Unsure, she pressed her back against the cool wooden door. Her breathes were coming out in quiet, shallow, puffs of air. Her sun-kissed arms rested down by her sides, her palms pressed lightly against the door.

His eyes, normally cool and calm, glued her to her spot, the message in them made her knees weak. His close proximity wasn't helping matters, and the jerk had to go and make it worse by stepping even closer. Neji and Tenten's nerve endings were hyper-sensitive; and both the shinobi were well aware of one another's warmth. Their normally smooth clothing felt abrasive and scratchy, and it impeded their desire for the smooth sensation of skin brushing skin.

Neji's right hand rose of its own violation, and made itself comfortable by the side of Tenten's head. He looked at her with half-lidded eyes.

"N...e" she said voice wavering, mouth dry unable to form two syllables; let alone a coherent sentence. Her heart beating erratically as she felt his hot breathe ghost across her face. He said nothing, just swallowed thickly, and Tenten's eyes followed the bob of his Adams apple. Neji's heart was pounding in his chest, and his body instinctually pressed in closer to the woman's in front of him. His resolve was set in stone. He raised his other hand lifted and gently cupped her cheek; a calloused hand met smooth skin. His thumb tenderly brushed her cheek. A fuzzy thought drifted thorough Tenten's mind, before she succumbed to the pleasant sensation and closed her eyes, leaning into his palm, 'could this really be Neji?'

His hand slid sinuously down from her cheek to curl around the graceful curve of her neck. His fingers curled around the back of her neck, playing with the short, silky, wisps of hair. With a shaky inhale, Neji took the last step, as he teetered on the edge of the last remaining precipice. He tilted his head and angled her face up towards his, firmly pressing his lips to her soft ones.

Simultaneously, all coherent thought fled them. The meeting of their lips was soft, and ungainly at first, the warmth of it slowly pushed them further down; in their mutual descent to madness.

He was everywhere, his warmth at her front, his hand at her neck, the knee-buckling sensation of his lips against hers. He made the last bold step forward and connected the length of their bodies; she could feel the lean angles of his body, and he the toned curves of hers. Their mouths warmly slid against one another, only parting to inhale and exhale tremulously. She slid her hands up his chest, one stopping at his shoulder, the other continuing upwards to tangle in the silky hair at the back of his head. They parted softly drawing in shallow breathes. He rested his forehead against hers, and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"…Tenten…" he murmured still slightly breathless. He was drawing back into himself to think, he was staring intensely off to the side again. Tenten replayed the recent developments in her head, trying to divulge the reason for the sudden shift in acceptable interactions.

"What… was..." she questioned softly her voice slowly returning to normal. Without her permission, her fingers lightly touched her lips, eyes rising to meet Neji's slightly unfocused white eyes.

'Off the deep end…'

He stepped back, gave her a slight twitch at the corner of his lips.

"Training is an hour early tomorrow" he stated, as almost an after though he lightly touched his lips to her forehead. He pivoted smoothly, hair swishing, as he confidently walked down the stairs. Still rooted to the spot, her brain allowed some intelligent thought to trickle sluggishly through her brain.

"What … Hey, wait!" she call out, slightly miffed. He turned and glanced at her over his shoulder.

She grabbed the railing along the porch, and shouted after him.

"You can walk away all 'cool' like that, without explaining yourself, Hyuuga Neji!" Tenten declared indignantly.

The corners of his mouth twitched and pulled up slightly. She was not amused, but he clearly was.

He turned and continued his journey home, casually calling over his shoulder,

"Just drop it, Tenten" the rich timbre of his voice has an affectionate tone as it rolled over the syllables of her name. She groaned, and stormed back into her house, thinking something along the lines of 'Hyuuga Neji was beyond insufferable'.

Striding down the street his mind wandered back to the previous event, he would have snorted but that would have been undignified; and subsequently un-Neji like. Although there were times when he was forced into situations that completely ripped away his dignity; unfortunately they seemed to be happening more frequently, and usually involved his female teammate.

He again his mind was pulled back to the event that shifted their relationship.

'Off the deep end... that was indisputable'

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	2. Bite Off More Than You Can Chew

**Author's Note**: This was the first one I started. I'm still working on getting Neji and Tenten right, in terms of characterization, so bear with me. I'll try to improve my writing... My Neji/Tenten muse was sent into overdrive mode by episode 14 of Shippuuden!

I'm still looking for a Beta, and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!

The theme and prompts are borrowed from the 30kisses community at livejournal. I didn't claim the NejiTen couple. This is for practice and fun, I'll leave the pairing to an author more talented than I.

Don't own Naruto, and anyone who asks if I do is silly.

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To put it in simply, Tenten had bitten off more than she could chew. It was like a baby boa constrictor trying to ingest an entire elephant. It was painful to watch, and worse to experience.

Tenten had willingly, and daftly, agreed to an extra sparring session with the Hyuuga genius. She needed to speed up her reaction time, and he was looking to… well actually she didn't know what Neji wanted to do, besides beat her into the ground (recent events pointed her towards that conclusion). She scanned her surroundings, a slow moving river to the left, trees to the right, more trees to the back, and even more trees in front.

There was a clearing half a mile to her north (behind her) but it was small, and why would she want to give up something that was working for her. She again asked herself if masochism was really the path in life she wanted to take.

The blame wasn't solely her burden to bear. After all no one can really say no to Hyuuga Neji, especially when he requests (commands) a training session. At the moment Tenten was questioning that mysterious phenomenon, while trying to breathe. All the while her eyes scanned her leafy-green surroundings. She was perched on a sturdy tree limb. Habitually fingering the coarse wrappings on the kunai she held.

Her muscles coiled; ready to launch an attack, her ears straining to hear; something, anything, it was futile. Of course Neji never made a sound. Tenten was already at a disadvantage.

'Right... Left.. Behind.. Below.. Above…' she glanced in each direction, her head snapped forward as she focused on the approaching man. '…. Crap… from the front'. Tenten let the kunai fly, and launched herself backwards; gracefully executing a back flip. It wasn't that her kunai missed, if he was anything less than a genius; he would have a sizeable hole in his chest right now. Tenten landed in a crouch then quickly jumped into a defensive stance.

A crunch and snap of a twig, Tenten whirled around in the opposite direction, and deflected his incoming strike with a sweeping motion of her arm. Tenten and Neji engaged in a small-bout of hand-to-hand combat before Tenten saw her chance, and with a backwards leap into the trees extracted herself from the disadvantageous situation.

Neither of the shinobi were paying enough attention to how close they had retreated, or pursued in Neji's case, towards the river. Tenten came to a skidding halt on one of the tree limbs; her hand grasped onto the limb and it was dragged roughly against the bark as she slid.

'Crap… that hurt' she winced and swiftly stood up. She had enough time to block his forceful hit from smashing her face in, but she hadn't completely regained her equilibrium. The force behind the blow sent her flying off the branch, and crashing into the water.

The air was roughly pushed from her lungs when she impacted the water. Neji appeared by the shoreline, and when she didn't pop up for air immediately, started to wade out. He was up to his knees when her she finally surfaced in a spray of water. She coughed the water out of her lungs and then greedily sucked in air.

'Holy crap cold' she thought, 'the silver lining would be…you aren't hot and sweaty anymore?'

Shaking the clinging strands of brown hair from her eyes, Tenten steadily began swimming to where Neji was waiting patiently.

After Tenten's feet found purchase on the bottom of the river, she sloshed her way over to Neji. She paused to drive the last of the water from her lungs.

"What has you so distracted, Tenten? You are never this absentminded" Neji's questioned as his white eyes bore into her sodden-form.

Tenten busied herself with keeping the dripping pieces of hair out of her eyes.

On an exhale, Tenten dismissed the notion,

"It's nothing" she waved it off, her voice filled with disinterest. She was busy wringing out the bottom of her water-logged white shirt. Thanks to her unexpected dip, it was translucent.

Neji, while he is a rather reserved and talented shinobi, the fact remains that he is a teenage boy. In reference to that fact, it can't be helped that teenage boys notice things, and, most of the time, are driving by their hormones. Unfortunately for Neji, there isn't a person in the world that is immune to hormones. Some are better at controlling their reactions; Shino or Neji, while others aren't so lucky, Kiba and Naruto for example.

So in reality it wasn't completely his fault that he had glanced, a few times, at her wet shit and stomach while she wrung out some of the water. This new development might be a disadvantage to Neji's concentration. He raised an eyebrow, he clearly didn't believe her.

"I can see clearly, that is not the case" he stated, refraining from snorting indignantly. His damnable eyes seemed to develop a mind of their own, as they once again glanced down at Tenten's shirt. He quickly snapped them back up to her face.

Tenten was, tired, sore, and uncomfortably soggy. She figured they had trained enough for one day.

"I'm not distracted, it's just an off day" she waved a gloved hand at him as she told him a half-truth. Tenten was experiencing the common phenomenon that all Kunoichi went through.

It seemed this week her hormones were being extra vile, they were constantly grabbing Tenten by the brain and throwing her through every conceivable emotion as quickly, and often as possible. She wasn't enjoying this new game of 'Let's see how many emotions our host can experience without her brain blowing up!'. What is the cherry on top of her sundae of misery, you ask? Well of course it's the fact that she had feelings for the stoic Hyuuga. Somehow Tenten had zoned out and had missed the majority of Neji's after-spar analysis speech.

"…Your form was lacking, and I barely had to exert myself to 'dodge' your attacks..." Neji stopped at her slightly unfocused expression.

'Eyes above the neck…Eyes above the neck... stupid hormones…. No stupid Tenten for falling into the river', Neji's inner mantra didn't seem to be helping, he was sure that he could control his hormones if it was anyone besides Tenten. He wasn't paying attention to the fact that she had yet to respond.

'It's all HIS fault… he's pretty… and my annoying body goes wacko when he's around… stupid Neji' Tenten frowned, obviously coming out and saying: Neji my body can't help but react to your obvious sex appeal, that's why I'm distracted and I couldn't stop myself from staring, and drooling, would be stupid. Tenten mentally rolled her eyes, she was sure that'd go over well.

Tenten got a wonderfully awful idea, 'Kiss your dry clothes goodbye Neji', she felt rather devious. Tenten and Tenten's hormones decided that: One, she wants to avenge her wet clothes, even though it was her fault, Tenten didn't bother with the small details; and Two, a wet Neji with a clingy white shirt was a benefit to everyone involved, except Neji but again Tenten didn't worry herself with small details.

In a flash, that Neji hadn't expected, he was busy with an inner monologue, Tenten had grabbed the front of his shirt, and with her remaining strength, swept his legs out from under him, and propelled him into the water.

Neji quickly righted himself. He flipped back the curtain of his sopping wet hair, trying to get it out of his face, so he could breathe. Neji quickly spit out a mouthful of river water, and he turned towards his teammate.

Tenten glanced down at his now soaking wet shirt, Tenten and her hormones were pleased with the clinging capabilities of his shirt.

'Ah... The silver lining…muscle-y Neji-chest' but upon seeing the look on Neji's face, it wasn't a particularly pleased one at that, she had to ask herself 'Did I bite off more than I can chew, again?'

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End! 


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